Sports Desk

BASEBALL

CLEMENS NOT COMMITTING TO DEPOSITION WITH COMMITTEE

Roger Clemens's lawyer wouldn't commit yesterday to having the pitcher give a deposition to congressional investigators, even as he said the seventime Cy Young Award winner remains willing to testify in open session before a House committee investigating denials that he used performance-enhancing drugs.

Clemens's lawyer, Rusty Hardin, was likely to meet this week with staff of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which has asked him to testify February 13 along with his accuser, former trainer Brian McNamee. The committee wants to take depositions from the pair along with Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte, former Yankee Chuck Knoblauch and Kirk Radomski, the former Mets clubhouse attendant who has admitted supplying players with steroids and human growth hormone.

Hardin wouldn't directly answer questions about a deposition.

"There has been absolutely no change in Roger's willingness and indeed desire to testify under oath before Congress in a public hearing at a date of the Oversight Committee's choosing," Hardin said in a statement.

FAN SUES YANKS OVER STEROIDS

A longtime fan is suing the Yankees over some players' reported use of performance-enhancing drugs, saying he wants repayment for $221 in tickets and a public response from his once-beloved team.

"I look at it almost as consumer fraud," said Matthew Mitchell, 30, a Brooklyn resident who said he went to his first game at Yankee Stadium in 1984. "If I'm going to watch a baseball game, then I expect it to be the real thing."

The Yankees declined to comment.

Matthew Mitchell wants to be reimbursed for tickets to five games between 2002 and 2007. They include Game 2 of the 2003 World Series, in which pitcher Andy Pettitte led the Yankees to a win.

FOOTBALL

FALCONS HIRE PATRIOTS' DIMITROFF AS GM

Tom Dimitroff was hired as general manager of the Atlanta Falcons yesterday, leaving his job as director of scouting for the unbeaten New England Patriots.

Dimitroff, who has been with the Patriots since 2002, will direct the Falcons' football operations, including working with a new head coach on draft decisions, free agency, trades and other personnel decisions.

The Falcons had a dreadful 4–12 season, one which saw star quarterback Michael Vick sentenced to a 23-month prison term after a federal dogfighting conviction.

HOCKEY

SENATORS' HEATLEY SIDELINED UP TO 6 WEEKS

The Ottawa Senators' Dany Heatley will be sidelined up to six weeks because of a separated right shoulder. Heatley crashed into the end boards with Detroit forward Dallas Drake in the second period of Saturday's 3–2 victory over the Red Wings.